


be still and know

by typervoxilations



Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: Character Study, F/M, M/M, Multi, ish, not relationship centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 12:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8208026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/typervoxilations/pseuds/typervoxilations
Summary: For the most part, he knows Layla, at least, would be the one to realize that this was him and I-need-time-to-think-give-me-space and she’d probably try to explain to Will, who wouldn’t get it, get it but generally be accepting of his (cowardice) decision anyways because if-Layla-wasn’t-worried-then-it’s-okay, and that was a little weird too, that he knows how they think and. Yeah. High school was always a little weirder after the disaster that was prom night.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is just one of those. Things. That I just need to get out of my system.  
> I am not good at writing long stuff? I just can't concentrate long enough for them or I'll lose track of my idea and.  
> The WIP fics are just piling up -______-

" _And when you stop shaking from the fear you will realize that the ground you have been standing on has always been secure. It has always been held by a God of stability and peace, you have always been the one who has made it seem otherwise._ "

- [Iammyss](http://iammyss.tumblr.com/)

* * *

Even before graduation he knows the super life won’t be for him - it doesn’t stop him from being angry and sullen all throughout high school but hey, he was a teenager and considering the environment, he was _allowed_ . At least, until Will happened. Until Layla happened. Until Layla-and-Will happened. Until Will-and-Layla became Will-and-Layla and Warren; and then _that_ became Will-and-Layla-and-Warren, somehow, for some reason, and it was terrifying in its’ complete lack of ability to make him feel just a tiny bit awkward. Maybe a little weird. But. It was okay. They kind of. _Fit_. Air-earth-fire. Three out of four, one of the others would joke, all they’d need to find was someone on the hero track with water based powers and by graduation they could have some elemental superhero group name.

 

( No one mentions that his ex could manipulate ice. He’s... grateful. It’s a weird thing to feel. )

 

But he's older than them by three years and his graduation comes and he -

 

Doesn’t _run away_ , exactly.

 

( He’d like to think he doesn’t, likes to think of it as strategic retreat from the mess that is his mental state, tells himself it's not like they asked him to wait for them, but. )

 

But he’s always known he’d never pursue the super life anyways and he doesn’t want to stick around so the people around him could try to persuade him otherwise. Tentatively, he calls them friends. It’s not quite what Will-and-Layla-and-Warren is, but all the languages in the world didn’t have a word for what they were.

 

( Are. _Damn it._ )

 

They are notoriously good at making him agree with them and that’s a risk he wants to avoid, really. He doesn’t want to look too deep into the logistics of the why’s and so he leaves and doesn’t tell anyone where he’s going.

 

Maxville is small. Tiny. Word gets around. They’d come to send him off and he’d...

 

( Want to stay. _Wants_ to stay. Doesn’t want to imagine Will-and-Layla-and-Warren without him. )

 

So he leaves before he can think too hard about it.

 

( He’s getting better at being non-confrontational. It’s a good thing? He’s not sure. )

 

For the most part, he knows Layla, at least, would be the one to realize that this was him and I-need-time-to-think-give-me-space and she’d probably try to explain to Will, who wouldn’t _get it,_ get it but generally be accepting of his ( ~~cowardice~~ ) decision anyways because if-Layla-wasn’t-worried-then-it’s-okay, and that was a little weird too, that he _knows_ how they think and. Yeah. High school was always a little weirder after the disaster that was prom night.

 

( He misses them, when he has the time to miss them. When he’s settled down he doesn’t have the menial tasks to distract him from the silence. )

 

He’s not sure what he’s doing, really, or maybe he is?

 

( He hasn’t been sure of anything since he watched the Commander and Jetstream drag his father off to supervillain prison. And it's not that he hasn't forgiven them but. It's still hard to think about. So he tries not to. )

 

He rents out a tiny, crowded one-person room in Guangzhou because China's the last place anyone who isn't Will-and-Layla-but-mostly-Layla would think to look because Will knows he used to work at the Paper Lantern but Layla's still the only one who's heard him talk to the owner in fluid Cantonese and he makes it a habit to make the trek to Shimen National Forest Park once every couple of weeks just so he can feel the way his muscles burn. The oxygen is thin high up in Tiantang Peak even with recent, non-stop rain the past week and it’s a little hard to breathe but he relishes it a little, in a vaguely masochistic way.

 

( _No_ _oxygen, no fire._ )

 

It’s less agonizing than having the air yanked straight out of his lungs in Save the Citizen by a goddamn human vortex and for brief, precious pockets in time he jealously hoards close to his heart, he can imagine he’s normal.

 

Not Warren Peace, that one guy who had Barron Battle for a parent.

 

( No one ever talks about his mom, the woman who retired from a life of fighting crime to raise him. He thinks about her every day. Promises he’ll visit when he goes home, after he gets over his existential not-quite-mid-life crisis )

 

Not Warren Peace, the pyro with anger issues and a chip on his shoulder, the kid who would either follow his villainous father’s footsteps or spend the rest of his super career trying to prove to everyone that he wouldn’t.

 

Just Warren.

 

Just a nobody.

 

The realization that he could let go of having to be _somebody_ if he wants to is liberating.

 

( Some days he thinks he might like it. Other days, he thinks of Layla-and-Will-and-Warren and is reminded that he doesn't, not really. )

 

And when he takes too long trying to find himself, they find him instead. Eventually. He’s not really trying to hide, though, after all this time. Not from them.

 

“Hong Shīzi*?” Layla smiles.

 

“I don’t get it.” Will frowns.

 

Warren just laughs, a huff of amusement that form weightless clouds in the chilly air and. Yeah.

 

He can live with this.

**Author's Note:**

> 狮子 [Shīzi] - Chinese (I’m guessing Mandarin? Google isn’t very specific.) for “lion.”  
> 康 [Hong] - Used as a surname in Cantonese, and means “peace/prosperity.”  
> So this took some research, because I speak absolutely no Chinese but basically, his fake name comes from Leo Tolstoy, the author of War and Peace - Leo means “lion” and Tolstoy is basically just “fat” so. Prosperous? Kind of. Anyone who’s better at Cantonese is free to correct me on the definition, or if this is even a proper naming scheme, idk man my foreign language major was Japanese.


End file.
